Learning to love the game - Haaretz

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Sun., September 02, 2007 Elul 19, 5767

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Learning to love the game

By Danit Nitzan

Given the activities that Shai Barda offers students in his physical education classes, one would think that gym gets the largest budget out of all the subjects taught at the Hashmonaim Comprehensive High School in Bat Yam. Barda turns soccer and basketball games into grade-wide tournaments, and he posts the scores on a bulletin board to increase motivation. Twice a year he organizes an "anti-violence in sports" day, and invites celebrities to address the subject. Last year, the speakers were soccer player Alon Halfon and Sports Channel reporter Eli Ildis.

After a graduate of the school was killed in the Second Lebanon War, Barda organized a soccer game, pitting students against Hapoel Tel Aviv, in his memory. He also founded an extracurricular sports club with offerings such as capoeira, soccer, basketball, table tennis, dance, aerobics and ballroom dancing, for only NIS 350 a year. And three years ago, he organized a school "Maccabiah" during the official Maccabiah Games.

"The students invited Jews from the Diaspora, and explained why it's important to come to Israel and to participate in the games, which helped them understand the power and value of sports," says Barda. "Of course afterward, they also participated in the games we held here."

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Barda explains his goal: "A child should enjoy school physical education lessons; otherwise he won't do anything. That's why I don't tell them to run around the field, but instead let them play catch, and that way they spend a lot of time running without even noticing. It's just much more fun that way."

When he devotes a lesson to a basketball game, for example, he doesn't work with the students only on dribbling or passing, which would bore them at best and frustrate the less talented at worst, he says. "I divide the class into small groups and let them play mini-games, and that way everyone is active, everyone participates and everyone competes."

And what if someone still doesn't want to participate?

"Anyone who really isn't cut out for sports gets to be referee. It's a year-long position, so it makes that child demonstrate commitment and interest in the games even when he doesn't participate. Meanwhile, his social status improves, because instead of being the one who sits on the sideline while everyone is playing, he gets to hold the whistle."

But students still are required to do push-ups and other strength training exercises.

"When we play dodge ball, for example, I make a rule that before each time you pass a ball you have to jump rope three times, or do three push-ups, or some other exercise. That way they maintain the feeling of a game, while completing important strength exercises on the way."

The reason for all this? "The children of yesterday are not the children of today," he says. "In the past, children were physically active even during their free time. They would walk to a basketball lesson, play with the guys for an hour or so afterward, and then walk home. Nowadays we're fighting the couch potato phenomenon. Even children who go to exercise class sit around in front of the TV beforehand, and go back to the TV afterward. The starting point is that children have changed, and that's why we have to adapt ourselves by getting them to like the activities."

In spite of the good intentions, it's not easy to get children involved in physical education classes. Many find excuses not to participate, and some don't even look for an excuse; they simply "forget" their sports shoes at home and thus gain a free period. Another problem is that the activities are competitive by nature, which is liable to alienate students and decrease their motivation.

Guy Dagan, the central district physical education supervisor, says the approach has transitioned from emphasizing achievement to teaching good habits, because "giving grades based on how far the child could jump, how fast he ran, and how many push-ups he completed embarrasses anyone who doesn't excel, and has not been found to boost motivation."

So what do you do instead?

"We grade for participation, for example. Even a child who isn't good at the long jump, but still participates in lessons, gets the maximum number of points for this component of the grade. We also grade individual progress. We don't measure each student according to a general chart, but according to how his ability improves over the course of the year. In that way, even less athletic children feel their progress and are proud of it."

All that sounds good, but to what degree can it be implemented?

"The changes are gradual, because it's hard to change teachers who have been doing things a certain way for 20 years," Dagan says. "But the young teachers entering the system already have this worldview - and even some of the veterans are learning and adjusting. The ministry offers in-service training, and it's a process.

"If in the past physical education teachers would focus on getting the most out of athletic students, now they have to pay special attention to children who might be marginalized, because the physical education grade includes participation, group cooperation, individual progress, teamwork and tolerance - the teacher has to pay attention to them and reward them for all this. For the students, this means recognizing their ability."

The curriculum for elementary school children still includes light athletics, including running, long jumping and high jumping, shot put, folk dancing and ball games such as handball, volleyball, soccer, basketball; but it also includes recreational games such as tennis, ping pong, badminton and orienteering. Physical education is based on these subjects, Dagan says, and how they are taught depends on the teacher.

Asher Ben Gal, 33, of Caesarea, who studied to be a physical education teacher, taught in a school for only one year. "I couldn't teach what I wanted, how I wanted, in a school physical education class," says Ben Gal. "The class is very heterogeneous in term of students' fitness, interest and motivation. It's hard to build a lesson plan that suits everyone, and there are always some students who feel out of it."

In his attempts to expose the children to as many activities as possible, "I found myself teaching folk dancing and aerobic dancing, as well as soccer and dodge ball," Ben Gal says. "At best, I felt that my greatest achievement was that a boy or girl suddenly took an interest in some athletic activity, and signed up for an after-school class."

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